The only reliable way to check whether a page is indexed by Google is Search Console's URL Inspection tool, or the API behind it. Google says so itself: its documentation states plainly that the site: operator "doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed under the prefix specified in the query," and that even for an indexed URL, showing up in a site: result "is not guaranteed" (developers.google.com, checked August 2026). The trick nearly every guide teaches first is the one Google tells you not to rely on.
We hit that wall building our own Bulk Google Index Checker, which reads the same URL Inspection API that Search Console uses, so this is written from the wiring rather than from a listicle. The thing worth knowing before you start: checking one page is easy and free, checking ten thousand is a scheduling problem, and the gap between those two facts is where most indexing advice quietly stops.
How do I check if a single page is indexed by Google?
Paste the URL into Search Console's URL Inspection tool and read the verdict at the top: "URL is on Google" means indexed, anything else means it is not. This takes about ten seconds and is authoritative, because you are asking Google's index directly rather than inferring from a search result.
The tool sits at the top of Search Console behind the search bar. It only works for properties you have verified, which is the whole point — Google will not hand out indexing data about sites you cannot prove you control. That restriction is also why no tool anywhere can legitimately check indexing for a site you do not own.
A verdict is a snapshot, not a permanent record. Pages that read "URL is on Google" today can be dropped later, and the reasons Google deindexes a page are mechanical enough that the check is worth repeating on anything you depend on.
One detail people misread: "URL is on Google" refers to the URL Google has indexed, which may not be the URL you typed. If Google picked a different canonical, the inspection tells you so, and your page is technically not the one in the index. Always read the canonical line, not just the green tick.
Why is the site: operator unreliable for checking indexing?
Because it was built for searchers, not site owners, and Google has documented that it is incomplete. Two sentences from Google's own search-operators page settle it: the operator "doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed," and an indexed URL appearing in those results "is not guaranteed." Google's stated recommendation for owners is to use URL Inspection instead.
That matters because the failure is silent and asymmetric. A site: search that finds your page proves it is indexed. A site: search that finds nothing proves nothing at all. Most people use it the second way, conclude a page is missing, and start fixing something that was never broken.
- 1
URL Inspection tool
Authoritative, one URL at a time, verified properties only
- 2
URL Inspection API
Same data, up to 2,000 URLs a day per property
- 3
Page Indexing report
Aggregated and lagging; example lists capped at 1,000 URLs
- 4
Third-party "check any site" tools
Scrape site: results, so they inherit its blind spots
The bottom row is worth pausing on. Any tool that offers to check a site you do not own is not reading Google's index, because Google does not expose that. It is running site: queries behind the scenes and inheriting every limitation above.
How do I check every URL on my site at once?
Use the URL Inspection API, which returns the same verdict as the manual tool but accepts programmatic requests, capped at 2,000 inspections per property per day and 600 per minute (developers.google.com, checked August 2026). Feed it your sitemap and you get a per-URL answer for the whole site rather than a sample.
The alternative most people reach for is the Page Indexing report, and it is genuinely useful for spotting patterns. It is the wrong instrument for a per-URL audit though: it aggregates by status, it lags by days, and Google documents that its example URL lists are "limited to 1,000 items" and are not guaranteed to show every URL in a given status even when there are fewer than a thousand. If you have 4,000 pages and want to know which specific ones are missing, that report cannot tell you.
The daily quota is the real constraint once a site gets large. A 500-page site fits in a single day with room to spare. A 10,000-page site takes five days for one complete pass, and there is no way to buy your way past that — the limit is per property and applies to everyone equally. If you are running the numbers on your own site, the arithmetic behind that ceiling is worked through in what the URL Inspection API's 2,000-a-day limit really means.
What if the page is indexed but not ranking?
Those are separate problems with separate fixes, and conflating them wastes weeks. Indexed means the page is in Google's database and eligible to appear. Ranking means it competes well enough to actually show up for a query. A page can be perfectly indexed and never surface for anything.
The diagnostic order matters. Check indexing first, because if a page is not indexed then no amount of content or link work will help it rank. Once you confirm it is indexed, the question becomes competitive rather than technical, and you are looking at intent match, depth and internal links instead of crawling.
There is a third state people forget: indexed, ranking, and getting impressions without clicks. That pattern usually points at AI Overviews absorbing the answer rather than at an indexing problem, which is a different investigation covered in why Search Console shows AI Overview impressions with no clicks.
How often should I check?
For most sites, after every publish and then monthly. New pages are where indexing actually fails, so the check is worth most in the first week or two after a page goes live; established pages that were indexed a year ago rarely fall out silently.
Sites that change a lot are the exception. If you run a store where products go in and out of stock, or a publisher shipping several pieces a day, the useful pattern is a rolling daily check that works through the sitemap newest-first, so recent pages get looked at while it still matters. That is the shape our own checker takes, and it is only possible because the API allows a fresh 2,000 inspections every day rather than a one-off allowance.
What is genuinely not worth doing is re-checking a stable page weekly. You spend quota you may need for new URLs, and Google's own guidance on pages that were crawled and not indexed is explicit that resubmitting achieves nothing. If you want the reasoning behind that, what "Crawled, currently not indexed" actually means covers Google's exact wording.
What blocks indexing most often?
In our experience the order is: a noindex tag left in place after a redesign, a canonical pointing somewhere unexpected, a page too similar to others on the site, and a firewall returning 403 to Googlebot. A slow origin belongs on that list too, and it is the one nobody suspects: Google defers crawling sites it expects to overload, which is what "Discovered, currently not indexed" is really telling you. The first two are configuration mistakes and take minutes to fix once you see them. The third is a content problem. The fourth is invisible unless you test it.
That last one has become more common as sites tighten bot rules. A page can be perfect and still never get indexed because the edge is blocking the crawler before it reaches your server, and nothing in your CMS will show you that. The URL Inspection tool will, under the crawl section, which is another reason to prefer it over guessing from search results. If you have recently added bot protection, what happens when Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers walks through how to tell which bots are actually getting through.
FAQ
Can I check if a website I don't own is indexed by Google?
Not reliably, and not with real index data. Google's URL Inspection API only returns results for properties the signed-in account has verified in Search Console, so there is no legitimate way to read indexing status for a site you don't control. Tools that advertise checking any domain are running site: queries behind the scenes, which Google documents as incomplete: the operator "doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed" and an indexed URL appearing there "is not guaranteed". You get a rough signal, not an answer.
How long does it take for a new page to get indexed?
Anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, and Google gives no guaranteed timeframe. Pages on sites Google crawls often, with strong internal links pointing at them, tend to be indexed within a day or two. A new page on a small or rarely-updated site can sit in "Discovered" for weeks. Submitting the URL in Search Console speeds up discovery but does not force indexing, because Google still decides independently whether the page merits a slot.
Does checking indexing status affect my rankings?
No. Reading indexing data through URL Inspection or its API is a read-only operation and has no effect on how Google treats your site. The 2,000-a-day quota exists to protect Google's infrastructure, not to penalise you for checking. There is also no benefit to checking constantly, since the underlying status only changes when Google recrawls the page.
What does it mean if Google indexed a different URL than the one I submitted?
It means Google chose a different canonical, usually because it considers your URL a duplicate of another page. The URL Inspection tool shows this as a "Google-selected canonical" that differs from your declared one. Your page is not independently in the index, and its content is being attributed to the canonical Google picked. The fix is to make the pages genuinely distinct, or to accept Google's choice and consolidate deliberately rather than by accident.